The Corsair is the third of a group of six tales which are usually grouped together under the heading “Turkish Tales”. Byron began the sequence with The Giaour (1813) and continued in a similar vein with The Bride of Abydos (1813), adding The Corsair (1814), Lara (1814), The Siege of Corinth (1816) and finally Parisina (1816). After the initial success of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812), it was these tales, and particularly The Corsair, which consolidated Byron’s fame in England and Europe. It is a poem in three cantos (a verse tale of the kind popularised by Sir Walter Scott) and is written in heroic couplets, a form which lent itself well …
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Citation: O'Connell, Mary. "The Corsair, a Turkish Tale". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 24 April 2007 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=1192, accessed 25 November 2024.]